The U.S. commander of coalition forces in Iraq and Syria says a Russian air strike in northern Syria accidently struck U.S.-backed Syrian Arab forces who are part of the fight against so-called Islamic State (IS) militants.

FBI Director James Comey pointed to Mexican drug traffickers in a discussion about the opioid epidemic in the U.S. He said traffickers are selling very pure heroin very cheaply to people already addicted to prescription painkillers. (March 1)

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Senior al Qaeda leader killed by CIA drone strikeINFORUMWASHINGTON - A Hellfire missile fired by a CIA drone killed al-Qaeda leader Abu al-Khayr al-Masri late on Sunday while he was riding in a car near the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib, a U.S. intelligence official said on Wednesday. The 59-year-old al ...and more »

Two West Point cadets face courts-martial on charges of distributing cocaine and other drugs and another senior faces similar charges amid a months-long investigation, the U.S. Military Academy said Wednesday.

Pat Buchanan: Is Russia truly our enemy?Daily HeraldIn Nuristan Province in U.S.-liberated Afghanistan this month, an armed mob of 300 besieged a jail, shot three cops and dragged out an 18-year-old woman who had eloped with her lover to escape an arranged marriage. Beaten by relatives, the girl was ...and more »

Thousands of civilians are fleeing a Syrian town where fighting between Islamic State fighters and government forces is intensifying after IS was driven from the strategic stronghold al-Bab in recent days. VOA's Mahmoud Bali reports.

Russian and Syrian aircraft mistakenly bombed members of U.S.-backed Syrian forces near the Syrian town of al-Bab, with U.S. troops just a few kilometers away, a top U.S. general in Iraq said. Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the ground commander for counter-Islamic State coalition forces, told reporters via teleconference from Baghdad Wednesday that the bombing on Tuesday inflicted casualties on the Syrian Arab Coalition, a force that has been battling Islamic State fighters, in villages described as “south and east of al-Bab.” He referred to the Syrian forces to disclose the number and extent of the casualties. Townsend said U.S. forces were “four or five kilometers away” advising “at command echelons a little bit farther back” when the strikes occurred on the villages. “Some quick calls were made through our de-confliction channels, and the Russians acknowledged and stopped bombing there,” the general said. Townsend told reporters that he believed the Russians and Syrians had thought that the villages were held by Islamic State forces.

Afghan security forces backed by American air support have conducted “successful” operations against the Islamic State (IS) group in Afghanistan during the past year, reducing the number of its militants to about 700. U.S. military spokesman Brigadier General Charles Cleveland provided the latest assessment Wednesday at a news conference in Kabul. He praised Afghan partners for their successes against the affiliates of the Middle East-based terrorist group. Cleveland said a year ago there were somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 IS members mainly in eastern Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan. “They were occupying almost 11 districts in that area and they were bringing all sorts of pain and pressure to the people of southern Nangarhar,” the spokesman added. “We believe that there are approximately 700 members of ISIS, perhaps even less now based on the operations, that are still contained to less than three districts down in southern Nangarhar,” said Cleveland. He said Afghan forces launched a fresh operation in two districts in the province about a month ago with the assistance of U.S. airpower, and the effort is progressing well. The spokesman reiterated that IS militants are primarily active in Nangarhar and in nearby districts of neighboring Kunar province, but he denied the existence of the terrorist outfit in northern Afghan regions, citing intelligence gathered by the U.S. military. Cleveland said the U.S. military was able to kill 12 top leaders of IS, including its regional chief, in 2016, degrading the terrorist threat in Afghanistan. Russia, Iran ties with Taliban criticized Cleveland again criticized Russia and Iran for maintaining overt contacts with the Taliban insurgency, saying it undermines the Afghan government’s efforts against terrorist forces in the country. Moscow and Tehran believe the emergence of IS loyalists in Afghanistan poses a threat to their regional interests and territorial boundaries, and justifies their ties with the Taliban, saying the Islamist insurgency is fighting IS to prevent it from expanding its influence in the war-torn country. “Our view is that any engagement with the Taliban by external actors is ultimately going to be counterproductive and it is going to undermine the legitimate efforts of the government of Afghanistan,” warned the U.S. military spokesman. But Russian authorities insist that IS is trying to establish a foothold in volatile northern Afghan provinces to try to export its terrorist activities to neighboring Central Asian republics to threaten Moscow’s interests. IS launched its extremist operations along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions two years ago, calling itself Islamic State Khorasan Province. The group has stepped up attacks on both sides of the border in recent months, mainly targeting minority Shi’ite Muslims. The latest such attack took place last month in southern Pakistan where an IS suicide bomber struck a crowded Sufi shrine, killing more than 90 devotees, mostly members of the Shi’ite community.

Macedonia's president has refused to allow a coalition of Social Democrats and ethnic Albanian parties to form a government because of its pledge to allow wider official use of the Albanian language. The move by Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov was criticized by the European Union. In a snap election in December, the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE won 51 seats to the Social Democrats' 49, leaving neither able to form a government without parties representing ethnic Albanians, who make up a third of the population. Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev last week won support of three ethnic Albanian parties in the parliament after agreeing to support a bill to enable wider use of the Albanian language, a deal that triggered street protests in Skopje. "I cannot give the mandate to somebody who threatens the sovereignty of Macedonia," Ivanov told reporters. The VMRO-DPMNE had already tried but failed to form a coalition. Macedonia, once a republic in the former Yugoslavia, wants to join the EU, but Johannes Hahn, European commissioner for enlargement, was unimpressed by Ivanov's decision, "In a democracy, one must acknowledge parliamentary majorities, even if one doesn't like them," Hahn said on Twitter. Alarming decision Macedonia's relations with its Albania minority have long been difficult. It reached the brink of civil war during an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001, before EU and other diplomacy defused the situation. Following December's vote, leaders of ethnic Albanian parties traveled to Tirana in Albania and agreed to a joint platform for negotiating with a coalition including demanding wider use of Albanian language. Macedonia's nationalists, including former prime minister Nikola Gruevski, said the demand was unconstitutional. Ethnic Albanian party Besa said Ivanov's decision was "alarming" and "a potential danger for the Albanian community in Macedonia." In Skopje, thousands had protested Zaev's deal. The protests, which started on Monday, spread on Wednesday to all major towns where Macedonians make up the majority.

Federalizing the European Union, creating a multi-speed bloc or reducing the union to a single market vehicle. Those are some options proposed on the future of the European Union in a White Paper by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The White Paper outlines a path for the European Union at a time when it's facing many external and internal challenges. Juncker, while presenting his White Paper to the European Parliament Wednesday, said as the bloc is about to celebrate its 60th anniversary later this month, it needs to shape its vision for its future. “However painful and regrettable Brexit may be, it will not stop the EU as it moves to the future," he said. "We need to move forward, we need to continue. … We should concentrate on the areas where we can actually provide specific results. It's time we make clear what Europe can and cannot do.” Five scenarios The White Paper outlines five scenarios on how the European bloc could move forward. One option would be “carrying on,” with a focus on strengthening the single market and “speaking with one voice” when it comes to foreign policy. Another proposal is for the European Union to do “nothing but the single market.” That means more has to be resolved bilaterally as the capacity to act collectively is limited. That option, according to the White Paper, could also “not fully guarantee” the free movement of workers and services, one of the foundations of the European Union. The idea was proposed by national politicians, but is Juncker's least favorite option. A third option is to create “coalitions of the willing,” whereby a group of countries interested in working together in specific policy areas could move along without having to get all 27 member states on board. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has voiced her support for this option in public. Then there is the option for the European Union of "doing less more efficiently" in a few select priority areas. And finally, the option of “doing much more together,” which basically would transform the bloc into a federal European Union. Pick a path None of the proposals need treaty or institutional changes, making it easier for fast implementation once EU leaders have decided which path to follow. The final decision is clearly put with national capitals to give them the responsibility on the future of the bloc as Juncker called upon the media and national politicians to stop the constant “Brussels bashing.” Members of the parliament all agreed changes are needed. Social Democrat Gianni Pittella, leader of the second-largest political group, said in a statement his group was disappointed with the White Paper, although he supported the option of “doing much more together” in parliament. Tough year for EU The European Union has had a tough past year. The Brits voted in a referendum to leave the bloc last June and parties critical of the European Union are polling high in upcoming elections in The Netherlands and France. EU leaders have a hard time agreeing on pressing issues, including the ongoing migrant crisis. Pieter Cleppe of the research organization Open Europe says he does not have high expectations for a White Paper discussion in the coming year. “Business as usual and no change is most realistic, unfortunately. France and Germany, under its current leadership, are most likely to push this. Officially they may go for enhanced cooperation, but that would be an empty pledge.” Leaders are set to discuss the proposal next week during a summit in Brussels and during the Treaty of Rome celebrations at the end of the month. Real progress and adoption of a way forward are expected at the end of 2017, after elections in Germany and France.

The day after President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, much of official Washington seemed to be focused on the president’s projection of a softer, more optimistic tone in his speech. Now supporters, critics and analysts are all wondering if this change is but a fleeting moment in the ever-changing world of Donald Trump, or is it something that is here to stay? It is a key question as Congress begins the task of grappling with Trump’s ambitious domestic agenda and tries to turn campaign promises into reality. The president met with Republican congressional leaders at the White House Wednesday to discuss moving forward on his ambitious policy agenda. “We’re just here to start the process. It begins as of now and we think we are going to have tremendous success,” Trump told them. Riding high Trump got some good reviews for Tuesday’s address to the joint session of Congress, with a lot of positive feedback on his softer, more optimistic tone. Perhaps the most bipartisan moment in Trump’s speech came near the end when he appealed to all Americans to “embrace” what he called a “renewal of the American spirit.” “I am asking everyone watching tonight to seize this moment, believe in yourselves, believe in your future and believe once more in America,” he said. It was a presidential moment for a president in need of one, analyst Jeremy Mayer of George Mason University in Virginia told VOA on Skype. “This was the best speech I’ve seen the man give, and I’ve been watching him very closely," he said. "There was an air of compromise, an air of calmness, of ‘let’s all work together’ that you just don’t see in Donald Trump’s rhetoric very often.” John Fortier of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington agreed. “We’re used to seeing a much more combative Donald Trump. It was much more optimistic in tone. He hit the themes from his campaign, but he did it in a much more positive way,” he told VOA’s Afghan Service. The battles to come Trump’s shift in tone could help with tough congressional battles to come over health care and tax reform, among others. “A lot of the details and the ‘how to do it’ is still very much a difficulty for him," Fortier added. "So for him to show some leadership and to show that he has a path to work with these Republicans who are broadly with him but there are many, many obstacles ahead, I think that is something that he would be wise to do.” But Fortier also estimated it could take several months, or perhaps up to two years, to make real headway on some of Trump’s goals given the complexities of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act - known as Obamacare - and enacting comprehensive tax reform. Partisan reaction Republicans by and large hailed the speech. House Speaker Paul Ryan said it was "a home run," while Vice President Mike Pence said the speech showed the president's "broad shoulders" and "big heart." But many Democrats remain skeptical that Trump’s change in tone is a lasting phenomenon, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “His speeches are always totally detached from reality,” Schumer told ABC’s Good Morning America. “He talks to the working folks of America. They were his main constituency. But the way he’s governed has been totally with the hard-right, special interests against the working people.” Poll bump Trump got a polling bump after his speech to Congress. A CBS/YouGov poll reported that 76 percent of those surveyed had a positive reaction to the address, and 82 percent found it “presidential.” Another survey by CNN/ORC found that 70 percent said the speech made them feel more optimistic about the direction of the country. The polls have generally been a weak area for Trump early in his presidency, with an average approval rating of under 45 percent. American University analyst James Thurber noted that Trump has been registering the lowest approval ratings of any new president since pollsters began measuring during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. Lasting shift or moment in time? Republicans and Democrats alike are also wondering whether the softer, more disciplined Trump on display Tuesday night at the Capitol is here to stay. “Trump has shown last night that he is up to the job of acting like a real president, finally,” said Jeremy Mayer. “But actually doing the work, [it’s] yet to be seen if he can do that.” Trump has done mini-pivots in the past, only to revert to more familiar campaign-style figure from the 2016 presidential campaign, said Republican strategist John Feehery. “He’s not going to change that much because he’s a 70-year-old man who has been successful in his life doing what he’s been doing, and he’s not going to magically transform himself," he said. "So I think we all have to be kind of realistic about what he can do to change.”

Former secretary of state John Kerry is joining a Washington think tank to serve as its first visiting distinguished statesman. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace announced Wednesday that Kerry would concentrate on conflict resolution and environmental challenges in his new role. The announcement was made by William Burns, Kerry's former deputy at the State Department, who is now president of the endowment. Burns said Kerry's “experience, wisdom, and belief in the power of diplomacy are needed now more than ever.”

The Trump administration supports renewing without reforms a key surveillance law governing how the U.S. government collects electronic communications that is due to expire at the end of the year, a White House official said Wednesday. "We support the clean reauthorization, and the administration believes it's necessary to protect the security of the nation," the official said on condition of anonymity. The law, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), has been criticized by privacy and civil liberties advocates as allowing broad, intrusive spying. It gained renewed attention following the 2013 disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Portions of the law, including a provision known as Section 702, will expire December 31, 2017, unless Congress reauthorizes them. 2 surveillance programs Section 702 enables two internet surveillance programs called Prism and Upstream, classified details of which were revealed by Snowden's leaks. Prism gathers messaging data from Alphabet's Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and other major tech companies that is sent to and from a foreign target under surveillance. Upstream allows the NSA to copy Web traffic flowing along the internet backbone located inside the United States and search that data for certain terms associated with a target. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have said reforms to Section 702 are needed, in part to ensure the privacy protections on Americans are not violated. The U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee met Wednesday to discuss possible changes to the law. Though FISA is intended to govern spy programs intended for foreigners, an unknown amount of communications belonging to Americans are also collected because of a range of technical and practical reasons. U.S. intelligence agencies have defended such collection as "incidental," but privacy groups have said it allows for backdoor seizures of data without proper judicial oversight.

Trump administration officials say it is time for a "more aggressive approach" to trade negotiations and enforcement. Wednesday's 2017 Trade Policy Agenda says Washington will strongly defend U.S. sovereignty in trade issues, strictly enforce trade deals, protect U.S. intellectual property, and negotiate "new and better trade deals with countries in key markets around the world." The report by the staff of the U.S. Trade Representative says U.S. exports are hurt when some trading partners restrict the flow of digital data, create unnecessary regulations, manipulate their currencies, steal trade secrets or unfairly subsidize their companies. The report's authors say these tactics may give an unfair advantage to companies in non-market economies. U.S. officials say they will fight back by emphasizing deals with one nation at a time rather than multilateral pacts like the World Trade Organization. White House officials say voters in the last election called for "fundamental" changes that expand trade that is "freer and fairer for all Americans."

President Donald Trump is spotlighting violence committed by immigrants, announcing the creation of a national office that can assist American victims of such crimes. He said during his address Tuesday night that the Homeland Security Department's Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement office will provide a voice for people ignored by the media and “silenced by special interests.” Critics of the president's approach to immigration say the proposal is misguided, in part because studies show immigrants are less likely to commit crime than native-born U.S. citizens. A look at the proposal and what it aims to do: What is the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement office? Trump's plan is to create VOICE as an office to ensure that victims of immigrant crime are kept abreast of developments in their cases and the deportation proceedings of suspects. It's a role similar to that of victim advocates who work in local and state courts. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly detailed the office's planned work in a memo last month that explained how his agency would carry out Trump's immigration enforcement policies. Kelly said in the memo that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was previously blocked from keeping victims informed about their ongoing cases because it extended privacy protections to immigrants, a policy that left “victims feeling marginalized and without a voice.” Kelly also wants ICE to redirect any of the money that had been used for outreach to immigrants to be used instead for outreach and advocacy for legal residents and U.S. citizens. The new office continues a dramatic overhaul of immigration policies. Under President Barack Obama, ICE protected information about immigration cases from public inspection, including from victims. It also created a public advocate position in 2012 in the midst of an overhaul of policies about which immigrants in the country illegally should be targeted for deportation. ICE said at the time that its public advocate would be the person at ICE who helped immigrants facing deportation and also answered complaints or offered explanations about how the agency was conducting its work. Launched and then closed by the Obama administration, the office was bashed by critics of Obama's immigration enforcement policies who said it was misguided to use government money to advocate for immigrants in the country illegally. Trump's VOICE would play a much different role and hews to some of his campaign vows. “This office has to do with keeping the promises and maintaining the pressure on the issue on criminal aliens and putting a human face to it,” said Doris Meissner of the Migration Policy Institute. Immigrants and crime Multiple studies have concluded that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than native-born U.S. citizens. A 2014 study published in the journal Justice Quarterly concluded that immigrations “exhibit remarkably low levels of involvement in crime across their life course.” Trump listed some high-profile examples in his Tuesday night speech to Congress, pointing to guests in the crowd, including a man whose son was shot by a gang member in Los Angeles and the wives of police officers who were killed on duty. Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of America's Voice, a liberal-leaning organization that advocates for immigrants, said, “Trump continues to tag immigrants as criminals, a charge as false as it is cruel.” The new office fits into his hard-line stance on immigration that includes a proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and new guidance that Homeland Security would subject any immigrants in the country illegally to deportation if they are charged or convicted of any offense, or even suspected of a crime. What happens next? U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it is rearranging existing personnel to support the new office and is “currently drafting outreach materials for victims and families impacted by immigration crime.”

Donald Trump, Master of Disaster?PoliticoThe world is full of potential crises, and at some point in the next four years the Trumpadministration will be faced with a global mega-disaster that will test his presidency. For the Obama administration, the effort to defeat Ebola was just such a ...and more »

Agencies across the federal government reported at least 37 leaks of classified information in 2016, more than double the number of criminal leaks reported in 2015, according to new information from the Department of Justice that highlights the government's inability to crack down on this illegal behavior.

The unauthorized disclosure of highly classified information has received renewed attention in recent weeks following what the Washington Free Beaconfirst described as a targeted campaign against Trump administration officials by Obama administration loyalists still operating inside the government. Sources in and out of the White House said this campaign began in late 2016, before Obama left office.

The ouster of former national security adviser Michael Flynn—who saw transcripts of his private phone conversations intercepted by the U.S. intelligence community leaked to newspapers—is believed to have been a central part of this campaign.

The Free Beaconreported earlier this week that a new series of leaks targeting senior White House adviser Sebastian Gorka is part of the campaign aimed at undermining President Donald Trump's national security apparatus.

Leaks of classified information are not a new problem. The U.S. government has been struggling for years to prevent highly classified materials from becoming public.

A review of Justice Department records from 2015 found that executive branch agencies reported at least 37 cases in which classified information was leaked in a criminal manner, according to a memo issued in the wake of a Freedom of Information Act request by the Federation of American Scientists, or FAS.

"We have conducted a search of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. A records search of that Section indicates that 37 crime reports concerning unauthorized disclosures of classified information were received by DOJ in CY 2016," the memo states.

This may account for just a small percentage of total leaks due to information restrictions put in place by Congress. The number of leaks in 2016 doubled that of 2015. However, it is only slightly above the average number of classified leaks reported in the last five years.

The FAS maintains that the consistent number of leaks demonstrates the government's inability to crack down on the release of highly classified information, despite orders from the Obama and Trump administrations.

"What makes the latest number of reported leaks interesting is not that it deviates sharply from past experience but that it does not," FAS wrote in a commentary on the Justice Department memo. "Evidently there is a baseline of leakiness that persists even in the face of strenuous official efforts to combat leaks."

A review of Flynn's phone calls with Russian officials that occurred prior to his official employment in the White House found no evidence of wrongdoing.

It is believed that Obama administration holdovers still operating within the government are passing classified information to the media in order to undermine the newly formed Trump White House.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters Tuesday that lawmakers should be doing more to hold leakers accountable.

"There's been major crimes committed," Nunes was quoted as saying. "What I'm concerned about is no one is focusing on major leaks that have occurred here.

"We can't run a government like this," Nunes said. "A government can't function with massive leaks at the highest level."

WASHINGTON(Reuters) - In his first major speech to Congress on Tuesday, President Donald Trump assured U.S. allies that he is committed to NATO, but some of his fellow Republicans have been blocking a Senate vote to expand the alliance for months.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russian-backed Syrian government forces and their allies fought their way into Palmyra on Wednesday, driving back Islamic State militants who have held the historic city since December, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House counsel&apos;s office has instructed the president&apos;s aides to preserve materials that could be connected to Russian interference in the 2016 election and related issues, three administration officials said Wednesday....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats urged the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday to review President Donald Trump's tax returns, as part of a campaign in Congress that has begun to show signs of attracting Republican support.

Republicans left President Donald Trump's speech Tuesday heartened by his tone, pleased he largely stuck to party positions and relieved there were no embarrassing moments. But they were also confused about the policy specifics the president wants — and possibly more importantly, how he will pay for any of it.

"He was silent on the details that I think will be very very important to legislative remedy," said Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.). "We need more definition and detail from the executive branch."

“There are divisions inside the Republican conference, and you really need the presidential leadership to cast the deciding vote,” added Rep. Tom Cole, a Republican of Oklahoma.

Trump's team said the speech, which promised ambitious spending on the military, a border wall, a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan, a better health care system and tax cuts — while not increasing the deficit — was more of a "top-line, visionary one," as one administration official said. Legislation will be hashed out in private sessions at the White House and on Capitol Hill, and Trump's aides are still wrangling over what specifics the president should endorse.

Trump's staff summoned a number of top lawmakers to the White House Wednesday to talk about health care, and the president is expected to offer more specifics in the coming months as his team studies individual proposals, administration officials say.

"It would have been very ineffective had you been involved in some kind of long, detailed step-by-step laundry list," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a top surrogate. "I would have been appalled if he'd stood there with some laundry list that nobody in America understood and talked on and on. I think he will go out there and give speeches to explain all of this."

Gingrich and others emerged clapping and cheering at the more subdued tone from Trump. But there seemed to be not much more understanding of his policy preferences than there was Tuesday morning.

"He said enough that he didn't rule anything in or out," one senior GOP aide aide. "He didn't alienate anybody. We will see what he says next."

House leaders, for example, believed Trump effectively endorsed their plan to come up with new refundable tax credits to replace Obamacare’s subsidies.The mere mention of tax credits was enough to set off cheers in the House leadership suites.

But some conservatives and some senators said they didn't believe Trump made a firm commitment to refundable tax credits. “No," said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a key GOP negotiator on Obamacare, when asked if he thought Trump committed to Ryan's plan. But Alexander added, "I saw Paul Ryan nodding his head pretty vigorously. So he may have thought so."

The same dynamic played out on Medicaid: Republican leaders believed backed their proposal to scale back the program under Obamacare. But lawmakers on the other side of the issue were similarly enthused by Trump’s vague promise to help people on Medicaid. It's a key point of contention in the Senate, where a number of lawmakers are angling to oppose anything that doesn’t keep their low-income constituents on the insurance rolls.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) suggested that more clarity from the commander-in-chief could help straighten out any confusion. In the House, members of the health, education and labor committee met Wednesday morning to discuss a bill they expected to be about 100 pages, one person familiar with the meeting said. The goal is to get the bill out of the House by April 6, this person said, but it remains unclear how much conflict there will be with a Senate bill. Many of the specifics are not written.

“It may be that you have a Senate version and a House version that are really far apart that the most effective thing that can happen is the president weighing in," Murkowski said. "Who knows?”

Members of the Ways and Means Committee interpreted Trump’s comments about levying assessments on imports in different ways. Tax Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said he was satisfied when Trump said “when foreign companies ship their products into America, we charge them almost nothing.” He saw it as a nod to his and Ryan’s tax reform proposal to hike taxes on imports, a controversial idea that has divided Congress and the White House.

Ryan's team was also pleased.

“You’re never going to hear” the president say ‘border adjustability,’" Brady said in an interview Wednesday. “He will tell you himself: he does not like that phrase. So you can forget waiting to hear that…. [But] He described it perfectly… I am confident border adjustability is going to be in this final tax package.”

But Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio), another member of the tax-writing panel who opposes Ryan's idea, wasn’t sure Trump’s remarks signaled he was warming to the border adjustment proposal. Other GOP aides said they shared his view.

“I’m not sure… I think his comments are — I think it’s too early to say,” Renacci said. “I have not heard that he is going to support the border adjustment."

Trump also talked immigration reform, changes to the education system and paid family leave — all daunting undertakings if the president and Congress manage to ever get to them. Trump was similarly vague on those topics.

Democrats see infrastructure as the prime opportunity to collaborate with Trump, but said they needed more detail before they can be pursue something.

"Talking the talk is not doing the job or helping a single person in the middle class. He needs to start walking the walk," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) of Trump's vagaries.

Democratic leaders want to pay for an infrastructure package with taxpayer dollars and financing it by closing tax loopholes. But GOP Republicans are likely to oppose that approach. A small number of senators in both parties, such as Alexander and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), support user fees to pay for new transportation projects. But conservatives would rather slash existing spending they view as unnecessary to pay for big projects.

Trump did not come down on one side or the other.

“I want to have it offset [with spending cuts] and that’s going to be the big job,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. “It’s going to be the most difficult thing for [Trump]. That and defense are going to require him to come up with money.”

Sanford said he was concerned about the cost of Trump's plans and wanted to hear how the White House intends to cut the budget to pay for them. Trump has proposed $54 billion in additional defense spending, without laying out offsetting reductions.

"If President Obama had come out with the same list and not saying how he'd pay for it, the headlines would be lit up today," Sanford said. "We just need to know a little more."

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), however, said the main imperative for Trump in his first address to Congress was to be "aspirational," not delve into policy weeds.

"Ultimately we'll be more successful with strong presidential leadership," Corker said. "And I think that's what he's going to exercise at the right time."

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The statistical effects of the October 28 Letter | Federal Bureau of Investigation - NYT

"Many good questions could and should al-zo be asked when Mr. Comey testifies in the closed session of the House Intelligence Committee next week... Comey's overall "motivations" might be complex and and at the same time simple: the security of the country. The details of these complexities are not easy to read..." - by Michael Novakhov - 4.25.17